Coin-operated crane type amusement games, in which a player pays money for the opportunity to control a crane (comprising a gantry assembly, crane assembly and claw assembly) to win toys, novelty items, trinkets, candy and other items are well known. At one time or another most of us have seen, or even played these games at nickelodeons, traveling carnivals, circuses, arcades, amusement parks, restaurants, movie theaters, game rooms, truck stops, bowling alleys, fairs or retail stores. Trying to win prizes from crane games is both fun and challenging. Unlike other redemption games, where one plays for tickets or prizes pre-selected by an arcade or game owner, crane games allow the player to select the prize to be sought. Crane games, then, provide entertainment to men, women and children alike.
A number of crane games are known in the marketplace, including the Plush Bus™, Sports Bus™, London Bus™, Chocolate Factory™ (the world's first crane/pusher candy bar dispensing game), Pinnacle™, Plush Palace™ (a double gantry/crane), Grab'n Go™, and Carnival™ crane, all of which are manufactured and distributed by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, Inc. (ICE), of Clarence, N.Y.
Various improvements have been made in crane games over the years. Cabinets are now made of metal, with epoxy-powder coatings (e.g., Plush Bus™) for protection and longer life. Some games (e.g., Pinnacle™) offer cabinets with beautiful wood finishes. Improvements have been made in the claw structure and operation, and in gantry and claw positioning and control systems. Electronic sensors and switching mechanisms have replaced mechanical sensors. Perhaps the most exciting development in recent years was the combination of a crane and pusher game in the popular Chocolate Factory™ game. In this game, the first of its kind to dispense candy bars as prizes, a player operates a crane to pick up one or more candy bars, and then carefully places the bars on a platform. A “pusher” then pushes the candy bars along the platform, which fall off the end of the platform (hopefully) as prizes.
Another recent improvement in crane amusement games is a cylindrical crane game manufactured by ICE, which game is the subject of U.S. Design patent application Ser. No. 29/153,090, filed Nov. 9, 2001, for an invention entitled, “Cylindrical Crane Game”, which application is incorporated herein by reference, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/037,324, filed Nov. 9, 2001, for an invention entitled, “Cylindrical Crane Game”. The game disclosed in these applications comprises a unique cylindrical (polar) coordinate system, and corresponding translational movement of the crane gantry, as well as a cylindrically shaped game housing.
Despite the number and variety of crane type amusement games which have been known in the marketplace over the years, to date no one has apparently invented or manufactured a crane game that enables a player to grab prizes in one or more attempts and place the prizes on a scale, winning the selected prizes if their combined weight is below a preset limit, but losing the selected prizes if a player is “too greedy” and attempts to win prizes that exceed the preset weight limit. Thus, a longfelt need has existed for a crane game where a player attempts to win one or more prizes that she places on a scale, but loses the sought after prizes if she fails to redeem them before exceeding a preset prize weight limit.